Morayma G. Reyes

Year entered: 1996

Degrees Received:
B.S. Biology/Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, 1996
Ph.D. Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, 2001
M.D. University of Minnesota Medical School, 2003

Year graduated: 2003

Residency program: Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle

Thesis Advisor: Catherine Verfaillie, M.D., Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology Graduate Program 

Thesis Research: 

We have demonstrated that 1 per 107-108 cells in post-natal marrow is a mesodermal progenitor cell (MPC) or a cell that can differentiate into cells of the splanchnic mesoderm (osteoblasts, chondrocytes, fibroblasts, adipocytes, stroma cells and skeletal myoblasts) as well as visceral mesoderm (smooth myoblasts and endothelial cells). Differentiation was shown by Western blot and immuno-histochemistry of proteins specifically expressed in each cell type. Cell doubling of undifferentiated MPC occurs every 48-60 hours and MPC can undergo >50 cell doublings without differentiation, telomere shortening or karyotype changes. MPC can be easily transduced with murine retroviral vectors. As MPC can easily be recovered from post-natal marrow, transduced and ex vivo expanded, they may be the ideal source of stem cells for treatment of genetic or degenerative disorders affecting cells of mesodermal origin. In addition, we have demonstrated that mesodermal progenitor cells (MPC) in post-natal bone marrow that differentiate to all mesodermal cell types can, depending on the cytokines used, differentiate ex vivo into oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and neurons. Human MPC also differentiate into astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and neurons when transplanted in vivo in the hippocampus of rat brains. Thus, stem cells in post-natal bone marrow that have characteristics of MPC can be induced to differentiate into glial cells and neurons. These cells constitute an easy accessible source of autologous cells for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. 

Publications:

Reyes M, Verfaillie CM. Characterization of multipotent adult progenitor cells, a subpopulation of mesenchymal stem cells. Ann NY Acad Sci 2001; 938:231-233.

Reyes M, Dudek A, Jahagirdar B., Koodie L, Marker PH, Verfaillie CM. Origin of endothelial progenitors in human postnatal bone marrow. J Clin Invest 2002; 109:337-346.

Reyes M, Lund T, Lenvik T, Aguiar D, Koodie L, Verfaillie CM. Purification and ex vivo expansion of postnatal human marrow mesodermal progenitor cells. Blood 2001; 98:2615-2625.

Schwartz RE, Reyes M*, Koodie L, Jiang Y, Blackstad M, Lund T, Lenvik T, Johnson S, Hu WS, Verfaillie CM. Multipotent adult progenitor cells from the bone marrow differentiate into functional hepatocyte-like cells. J Clin Invest 2002; 109:1291-1302.

Jiang Y, Jahagirdar BN, Reinhardt RL, Schwartz RE, Keene CD, Ortiz-Gonzalez XR, Reyes M, Lenvik T, Lund T, Blackstad M, Du J, Aldrich S, Lisberg A, Low WC, Largaespada DA, Verfaillie CM. Pluripotency of mesenchymal stem cells derived from adult marrow. Nature. 2002;418:41-49.

Jiang Y, Vaessen B, Lenvik T, Blackstad M, Reyes M, Verfaillie CM. Multipotent progenitor cells can be isolated from postnatal murine bone marrow, muscle, and brain. Exp Hematol. 2002;30:896-904.

Zhao LR, Duan WM, Reyes M, Verfaillie CM, Low WC. Immunohistochemical identification of multipotent adult progenitor cells from human bone marrow after transplantation into the rat brain. Brain Res Brain Res Protoc. 2003;11:38-45.